“Comment spam” can ruin your site. Comment spam, aka blog spam, abuses the reader’s ability to leave a “comment” on a blog. Unlike a usual comment, “comment spam,” however, has no meaningful content and has no value for you or your readers. Spam contains meaningless no-value text, gibberish and hyperlinks back to the author’s page… all to generate traffic to their site.

Spam Can Decrease Your Web Page SEO

Don’t Distract Your Readers

Your readers are looking for answers. They are looking for answers quickly. If they have to sort through meaningless comments/spam. They’ll get bored and distracted. They came looking for your content and if they can’t find it…they’ll leave.

Ever read a thread on a blog? Imagine you’ve found someone asking for help for the exact problem you have…but you can’t find the answer because it’s buried in a pile of useless comments.

Using Your Blog as a Portal for Spam

Spammers hope to publish their spam using your blog as a portal to the Internet. If lucky, they can get a comment “approved” on a blog that doesn’t use a spam blocker or has a webmaster that scrutinizes new comments.

Once published, repeat comments from an identical IP address usually get published immediately, bypassing scrutiny of the software and webmaster.

Spammers now have a portal in which they can publish at will.

Comment Spam Blockers

I use Akismet. It is free for personal use and is very cheap for a business site. Check their site for specifics. Akismet is very crafty in filtering about 99% of the garbage directed at my sites. I never see it, and thus, there is no chance for the stuff to be published.

I have more time to dedicate to writing and responding to my legitimate readers.

Occasionally, well constructed spam does sneak through, but it is usually easily recognized by yours truly. I have some tips on how to recognize spam.

Spam can be a huge distraction from your work and your blog. Don’t waste your time or your readers!

Can you recognize comment spam? Even though you may be using a spam blocker, occasionally a suspicious comment sneaks through. It’s worth your while to learn how to identify comment spam and keep it off your site!

Very Few Words or No Words

The text of comment spam often either makes no sense (random strings of characters) or is quite short, such as “nice job” or “great site.” In general, a true comment is either going to ask a legitimate question or contribute to your site by providing a meaningful comment that is relevant.

Spam and Hyperlinks

Look for hyperlinks within the text of the comment, or, look for a URL itself within the text. This will be a clue that the author is trying to set up hyperlinks to their own site.

Not all spam is vulgar or inappropriate. Spam is anything your receive that is unwanted. Many times I will not approve a comment, even though benign in language, if it has nothing to do with my site.

On my sites, approved authors can automatically get published on my sites. “Approved” means they have commented before, legitimately, and I have published their comment.
Thus, I don’t approve anything that is not obviously relevant as the author could place comment spam subsequent to the first submission.

Signature

Look at the signature of the author. Spammers will also usually leave a URL in the signature box of the comment. I’ll often check out the URL before allowing the comment to be published.
Overall, with the use of a spam blocker, such as Akismet, and using these tips, I’ve avoided most spam on my sites. Remember spam is unwanted comments to your site. It can reduce your SEO and turn away your followers!